The Way Into Mordor - Wraiths (10/9: "Always creeping, creeping.")

[DáinIronfoot]

A couple random but powerful support cards for our new Wraiths, including the return of weather cards for the first time since...well, the last set. Enjoy!

•Black Mere
Condition • Support Area
Weather.
Each time you play a twilight Wraith, you may add a token here.
Shadow: Play a twilight minion or search card and remove X tokens from here to add .
Each time the fellowship moves to a non-marsh site, remove 2 burdens or discard this condition.
"Presently it grew altogether dark: the air itself seemed black and heavy to breathe."

•Shapes In the Dark
Condition • Support Area
To play, spot a twilight Wraith.
Regroup: If the fellowship is at a marsh, discard this condition to make the fellowship move again this turn (if the move limit allows). The Free Peoples player may add a burden for each Wraith minion you can spot to prevent this.
"‘Very very weary, of course; so we are, my precious, all of us. But we must take master away from the wicked lights, yes, yes, we must.'"

[Thranduil]

Ghostly Wisp
Minion • Wraith
Strength: 8
Vitality: 2
Site: 4
Twilight.
Regroup: Spot a Nazgûl or another twilight minion and discard this minion to add a burden.
"‘Cold be heart and hand and bone / Cold be travelers far from home.'"

I think "another twilight minion or Nazgûl" scans better, but that's very pedantic.

Misty Flame
Minion • Wraith
Strength: 7
Vitality: 2
Site: 4
Twilight.
Skirmish: Exert this minion to make a Nazgûl or twilight minion strength +1 for each burden you can spot.
"When lights appeared Sam rubbed his eyes: he thought his head was going queer. He first saw one with the corner of his left eye, a wisp of pale sheen...."

Great! I would lower his strength a little and make him enduring.

Pale Lights
Minion • Wraith
Strength: 5
Vitality: 1
Site: 4
Twilight. To play, spot a Nazgûl or a twilight minion.
When you play this minion, you may choose one: spot 2 Nazgûl or 2 other twilight minions to add a burden; or remove a burden to make this minion fierce and damage +1 until the end of the turn.
"...others appeared soon after: some like dimly shining smoke, some like misty flames flickering slowly above unseen candles...."

[/quote]
Seems fine. Could cost with its spotting requirement.

•Black Mere
Condition • Support Area
Weather.
Each time you play a Wraith at a marsh, you may add a token here.
Shadow: Play a twilight minion or search card and remove X tokens from here to add .
Each time the fellowship moves to a non-marsh site, remove 2 burdens or discard this condition.
"Presently it grew altogether dark: the air itself seemed black and heavy to breathe."

I think that you should add tokens when you play any Wraith so that this card supports the ones (however terrible they are!). And I think I'd prefer if the first line didn't specify marsh and it just had the drawback.

•Shapes In the Dark
Condition • Support Area
To play, spot a twilight minion.
Regroup: If the fellowship is at a marsh and the move limit allows the fellowship to move again this turn, discard this condition to make the Free Peoples player choose one: move to the next site; or add a burden for each Wraith you can spot.
"‘Very very weary, of course; so we are, my precious, all of us. But we must take master away from the wicked lights, yes, yes, we must.'"

I would again just say "twilight minion" but otherwise it's a fun evil card. I would also phrase the adding burdens as a prevention not a choice, so like: "If the fellowship is at a marsh, discard this condition to make the fellowship move again this turn (if the move limit allows). The Free Peoples player may add a burden for each Wraith to prevent this".

Thranduil

[DáinIronfoot]

Made your recommended changes, Thran. Thanks!

[lem0nhead]

•Black Mere
Condition • Support Area
Weather.
Each time you play a twilight Wraith, you may add a token here.
Shadow: Play a twilight minion or search card and remove X tokens from here to add .
Each time the fellowship moves to a non-marsh site, remove 2 burdens or discard this condition.
"Presently it grew altogether dark: the air itself seemed black and heavy to breathe."

Id cut it back to 1 burden and up its cost to 2 or 3.  

•Shapes In the Dark
Condition • Support Area
To play, spot a twilight Wraith.
Regroup: If the fellowship is at a marsh, discard this condition to make the fellowship move again this turn (if the move limit allows). The Free Peoples player may add a burden for each Wraith minion you can spot to prevent this.
"‘Very very weary, of course; so we are, my precious, all of us. But we must take master away from the wicked lights, yes, yes, we must.'"

Niiiiice.

[DáinIronfoot]

Hmmmm. I'd rather leave Black Mere as it is, but there is certainly some merit to lem0n's argument. I'll repost it (unmodified except for a change in the Shadow ability...now another "each time" ability) so it doesn't get lost in the shuffle and let others weigh in. I'd prefer more than 2 reviews anyway.

•Black Mere
Condition • Support Area
Weather.
Each time you play a twilight Wraith, you may add a token here.
Each time you play a twilight minion or search card, you may remove X tokens from here to add .
Each time the fellowship moves to a non-marsh site, remove 2 burdens or discard this condition.
"Presently it grew altogether dark: the air itself seemed black and heavy to breathe."

And now, two new cards that pair rather nicely together...unless you happen to be the Free Peoples player.

Where's the Master?
Event • Assignment
Search.
Assign a twilight Wraith minion to a Ring-bound companion. The Free Peoples player may add a burden to prevent this.
"Suddenly he stumbled against Frodo, who was standing lost in thought, looking at the pale lights. His hands hung stiff at his sides; water and slime were dripping from them."

Cursed Place
Event • Skirmish
Remove a burden to wound a companion skirmishing a twilight Wraith minion. Then, if the fellowship is at a marsh, the Free Peoples player must exert a Ring-bound companion.
"There was a faint hiss, a noisome smell went up, the lights flickered and danced and swirled."

[FM]

And here I am, back to reviewing stuff after the craziest pair of weeks of my whole life so far!

•Black Mere
Condition • Support Area
Weather.
Each time you play a twilight Wraith, you may add a token here.
Each time you play a twilight minion or search card, you may remove X tokens from here to add .
Each time the fellowship moves to a non-marsh site, remove 2 burdens or discard this condition.
"Presently it grew altogether dark: the air itself seemed black and heavy to breathe."

Does it have to be unique? It's not that spectacular from where I see it. Of course, for flavor reasons, weather conditions SHOULD be unique, but I think another way of adding tokens would be in good taste for the owner, like adding a token whenever the fellowship moves, as well?

Where's the Master?
Event • Assignment
Search.
Assign a twilight Wraith minion to a Ring-bound companion. The Free Peoples player may add a burden to prevent this.
"Suddenly he stumbled against Frodo, who was standing lost in thought, looking at the pale lights. His hands hung stiff at his sides; water and slime were dripping from them."

Neat.

Cursed Place
Event • Skirmish
Remove a burden to wound a companion skirmishing a twilight Wraith minion. Then, if the fellowship is at a marsh, the Free Peoples player must exert a Ring-bound companion.
"There was a faint hiss, a noisome smell went up, the lights flickered and danced and swirled."

I don't think you'd need the "minion" there. Also, not that great, I believe it could cost less twilight, or remove no burden and then you'd lose the last part, or even up the cost to 3, make it remove no burden, and then ADD a burden if at a marsh.

[Thranduil]

Where's the Master?
Event • Assignment
Search.
Assign a twilight Wraith minion to a Ring-bound companion. The Free Peoples player may add a burden to prevent this.
"Suddenly he stumbled against Frodo, who was standing lost in thought, looking at the pale lights. His hands hung stiff at his sides; water and slime were dripping from them."

Looks good. I'd perhaps want it do something like: "Exert a Wraith (or spot a twilight Wraith) to assign that Wraith to a Ring-bound companion", though I suppose given that this is Ring-bound it could be that more specialisation is better.

Cursed Place
Event • Skirmish
Remove a burden to wound a companion skirmishing a twilight Wraith minion. Then, if the fellowship is at a marsh, the Free Peoples player must exert a Ring-bound companion.
"There was a faint hiss, a noisome smell went up, the lights flickered and danced and swirled."

I'd rather go for "Remove a burden to wound a companion skirmishing a twilight Wraith, or wound that companion twice if the fellowship is at a marsh". Or else I'd go for perhaps an inversion to heal the companion and add lots of burdens, which seems to fit more tightly in the culture.

Thranduil

[Elf_Lvr]

•Black Mere
Condition • Support Area
Weather.
Each time you play a twilight Wraith, you may add a token here.
Each time you play a twilight minion or search card, you may remove X tokens from here to add .
Each time the fellowship moves to a non-marsh site, remove 2 burdens or discard this condition.
"Presently it grew altogether dark: the air itself seemed black and heavy to breathe."

Pretty cool. Upkeep balances it.

Where's the Master?
Event • Assignment
Search.
Assign a twilight Wraith minion to a Ring-bound companion. The Free Peoples player may add a burden to prevent this.
"Suddenly he stumbled against Frodo, who was standing lost in thought, looking at the pale lights. His hands hung stiff at his sides; water and slime were dripping from them."

Fair enough, but seriously, culture doesn't need another super-easy burden-adder. They've already got Keening Wail and It Wants to Be Found. Now a deck would just have to run 4-ofs of those and this, and corruption would be a piece of cake.

Cursed Place
Event • Skirmish
Remove a burden to wound a companion skirmishing a twilight Wraith minion. Then, if the fellowship is at a marsh, the Free Peoples player must exert a Ring-bound companion.
"There was a faint hiss, a noisome smell went up, the lights flickered and danced and swirled."

Okay, if you mean twilight [wraith culture], you need brackets. If not, just say "Twilight Wraith."

[lem0nhead]

•Black Mere
Condition • Support Area
Weather.
Each time you play a twilight Wraith, you may add a token here.
Each time you play a twilight minion or search card, you may remove X tokens from here to add .
Each time the fellowship moves to a non-marsh site, remove 2 burdens or discard this condition.
"Presently it grew altogether dark: the air itself seemed black and heavy to breathe."

Fine now.

Where's the Master?
Event • Assignment
Search.
Assign a twilight Wraith minion to a Ring-bound companion. The Free Peoples player may add a burden to prevent this.
"Suddenly he stumbled against Frodo, who was standing lost in thought, looking at the pale lights. His hands hung stiff at his sides; water and slime were dripping from them."

Sound.

Cursed Place
Event • Skirmish
Remove a burden to wound a companion skirmishing a twilight Wraith minion. Then, if the fellowship is at a marsh, the Free Peoples player must exert a Ring-bound companion.
"There was a faint hiss, a noisome smell went up, the lights flickered and danced and swirled."

Coolio.

[DáinIronfoot]

Alrighty, how about some spooky weather stuff?

•Slimed and Fouled
Condition • Support Area
Weather.
Each time the fellowship moves from a marsh, each companion with resistance 3 or less must exert. The Free Peoples player may exert each Ring-bound companion to prevent this.
"Often they floundered, stepping or falling hands-first into waters as noisome as a cesspool, till they were slimed and fouled almost up to their necks and stank in one another's nostrils."

Your very own portable Neekerbreeker's Bog. Just add water...and slime!

Change Is Coming
Condition • Support Area
Search. Weather.
Assignment or Regroup: Discard a twilight minion with twilight cost X to play a Nazgûl; its twilight cost is -X.
Skirmish: Discard this condition to make a Nazgûl strength +1 for each twilight Wraith you can spot.
"...the stirring of the air became perceptible to them; and it grew very cold. As they stood straining their ears, they heard a noise like a wind coming in the distance. The misty lights wavered, dimmed, and went out."

Been trying to find a way to really ties Nazzies and Wraiths together. Hopefully this one strikes gold in that department.

[Elf_Lvr]

•Slimed and Fouled
Condition • Support Area
Weather.
Each time the fellowship moves from a marsh, each companion with resistance 3 or less must exert. The Free Peoples player may exert each Ring-bound companion to prevent this.
"Often they floundered, stepping or falling hands-first into waters as noisome as a cesspool, till they were slimed and fouled almost up to their necks and stank in one another's nostrils."

Awesome.

Change Is Coming
Condition • Support Area
Search. Weather.
Shadow: Discard a twilight minion with twilight cost X to play a Nazgûl; its twilight cost is -X.
Skirmish: Discard this condition to make a Nazgûl strength +1 for each twilight Wraith you can spot.
"...the stirring of the air became perceptible to them; and it grew very cold. As they stood straining their ears, they heard a noise like a wind coming in the distance. The misty lights wavered, dimmed, and went out."

Sorry, but first ability is useless, unless your Wraiths like being discarded. Since discard defaults to "from play" and play defaults to "from hand" there is no reason not to just play the Nazgul without the help of the Wraith, since it is invariably going to cost the same or less. If it pulled minions from deck or discard, then it'd be nice.

Second ability's fair.

[FM]

Well, the name IS "change is coming". See, he plays a bunch of wimpy Wraiths, you double-move, he drops the condition and dumps 3-4 Nazgul at once. Things could get ugly. I like it, but I think the second ability is actually close-to-useless, since you'll usually clear the board of Wraiths to dump Nazguls anyway. You could probably discard the condition to return to your hand all Wraiths that were discarded this turn to your hand? And give it another grossly overcost (although hand-clog alone would punish, since it wouldn't give the option to return "some" of them, but instead return them all).

[Thranduil]

•Slimed and Fouled
Condition • Support Area
Weather.
Each time the fellowship moves from a marsh, each companion with resistance 3 or less must exert. The Free Peoples player may exert each Ring-bound companion to prevent this.
"Often they floundered, stepping or falling hands-first into waters as noisome as a cesspool, till they were slimed and fouled almost up to their necks and stank in one another's nostrils."

Seems fair enough.

Change Is Coming
Condition • Support Area
Search. Weather.
Shadow: Discard a twilight minion with twilight cost X to play a Nazgûl; its twilight cost is -X.
Skirmish: Discard this condition to make a Nazgûl strength +1 for each twilight Wraith you can spot.
"...the stirring of the air became perceptible to them; and it grew very cold. As they stood straining their ears, they heard a noise like a wind coming in the distance. The misty lights wavered, dimmed, and went out."

Contrary to both previous reviews, I think both abilities are useful but entirely separate for different circumstances, which makes the card over all very flexible and therefore I think good. The first ability you would use when you are inundated with Wraiths but need some more Nazgûl. Say, for example, that you drew a Nazgûl in your Shadow phase after playing a load of Wraiths and wanted to play him, or more likely on the double move. The second ability you would use if you just had 1 or 2 Nazgûl and everyone else was a Wraith just for a bit of fun. I would, however, change the cost to ( is too hefty for the second ability) with a spotting requirement.

Thranduil

[sickofpalantirs]

Alrighty, how about some spooky weather stuff?

•Slimed and Fouled
Condition • Support Area
Weather.
Each time the fellowship moves from a marsh, each companion with resistance 3 or less must exert. The Free Peoples player may exert each Ring-bound companion to prevent this.
"Often they floundered, stepping or falling hands-first into waters as noisome as a cesspool, till they were slimed and fouled almost up to their necks and stank in one another's nostrils."
fine

Change Is Coming
Condition • Support Area
Search. Weather.
Shadow: Discard a twilight minion with twilight cost X to play a Nazgûl; its twilight cost is -X.
Skirmish: Discard this condition to make a Nazgûl strength +1 for each twilight Wraith you can spot.
"...the stirring of the air became perceptible to them; and it grew very cold. As they stood straining their ears, they heard a noise like a wind coming in the distance. The misty lights wavered, dimmed, and went out."

maybe cut cost to 1

[lem0nhead]

•Slimed and Fouled
Condition • Support Area
Weather.
Each time the fellowship moves from a marsh, each companion with resistance 3 or less must exert. The Free Peoples player may exert each Ring-bound companion to prevent this.
"Often they floundered, stepping or falling hands-first into waters as noisome as a cesspool, till they were slimed and fouled almost up to their necks and stank in one another's nostrils."

Nice.

Change Is Coming
Condition • Support Area
Search. Weather.
Shadow: Discard a twilight minion with twilight cost X to play a Nazgûl; its twilight cost is -X.
Skirmish: Discard this condition to make a Nazgûl strength +1 for each twilight Wraith you can spot.
"...the stirring of the air became perceptible to them; and it grew very cold. As they stood straining their ears, they heard a noise like a wind coming in the distance. The misty lights wavered, dimmed, and went out."

Dont understand why you would want to do the first bit. Do twilight minions do something when theyre played so you get their benefit but then play a nazgul to fight?